For the Mid Atlantic Open (MAO) event we had a problem scheduling practices because of where the event fell in relation to Easter weekend. I’m sure a lot of teams felt this same pain. Some of the team practiced individually where they could with whoever they could but the team as a whole only had one practice weekend and it was the weekend before the event. For that practice, we practiced at the PC Katana home field in Panama City. Saturday was spent mostly on learning the field and breakout drills. We felt very strong about some of the shots so that’s what we worked on most of the morning. As the day went on, we started playing longer points and letting the games last for a few minutes. We finished off Saturday with some full-length matches and closed out feeling pretty good. On Sunday, we had other local teams and a lot of the other PC Katana team members to scrimmage. We solidified the lanes and breakout drills from the previous day and started focusing on communication and closing out games. We thought the field would play fairly slow until we were up on bodies then felt it would move quickly.

The Mid Atlantic Open event was held in Chesapeake City, MD for the third year in a row. This venue has been fairly good as far as paintball events go. The parking lot was a bit muddy and hard to navigate for some but luckily we didn’t have any problems.

The weather was good while we played but it rained on and off while we were there keeping the fields just a little bit muddy and making sure the parking lot was rather messy.

We had high hopes for the team this event. You can always prepare more but we worked really hard the weekend before the event to be ready. Coming out of a 1-3 record from the Dallas Open event we were eager to improve our performance. We turned it around this event and won 3 out of 4 in the preliminary rounds. This felt really good and we were excited about playing on Sunday for the first time this season. Last season we were in a lower division and we played past the preliminary round every event. The season is still long but we strive to be in the Sunday club each event going forward.

Dan Strickland we really felt like the mustache was going on the shelf with the trophy this time! Thanks for all of your support and keep the cool water coming! Empire Paintball keeps us running as usual (even though their tent was super muddy) this event. Alfred and Jay, I’m sure we owe you guys a Redds Apple Ale for all the tech work you guys do. Thanks again!

Well boys and girls, here we go again; it’s another season of PSP paintball! PC Katana will be playing division 2 this season instead of division 3. This will be a change for the team but it’s not the first time PCK has played division 2. A lot has changed in the last few years on the team and we are ready.

We have some new players on the roster starting this season and we’re all excited to see the new faces. Erik Wilson is returning to the ranks and will be standing beside his teammates this season instead of coaching and we’re all glad of that. Thanks Erik for the great job last season and welcome back to the playing field. This season we will also be adding Justin Mohr who played with PC Katana before but most recently with CFP Static and CFP Wrecking Crew. Welcome back! Also new to the PC Katana program is DJ Brata. Several of us have played with DJ in the past so he’s definitely not a new face. His recent teams include CEP D2 and Zzzzzulu Warriors.

The first PSP event of the year was hosted at Cousins Paintball in Forney Texas. Texas events are always hard to pack for…is it gonna be cold, hot, sleeting or raining or all of the above in the same weekend. (Better plan on all of the above!)

We had two grinding practices leading up to the event. The first was at Central Florida Paintball and the second was at our home field in Panama City Beach, Florida. Thanks CFP and Static for having us!

Sadly, Dallas didn’t go very well for PC Katana. We lost 3 of our 4 preliminary matches and that sent us home. Maybe it was the first of the season and we didn’t prepare over the winter enough, maybe it was first tournament jitters…who knows. All I know is that we’ll be better prepared for MAO in May.

As always, there can’t be enough good things said about Dan Strickland who keeps us all together and keeps the PC Katana program going strong. Thanks to all the techs at Empire (especially Alfred and Jay) for keeping our guns and loaders in the best condition. They tolerate a lot having to deal with Pate and Barn on a regular basis. 🙂

We’d also like to say thanks to the Guntai, Senshi and Ikusa Katana squads for always being there to help prepare us for these events.